How caching works
Every ServerBorn site sits behind two caches. The edge cache is Cloudflare's global network: a copy of your pages and files is kept in the data center closest to each visitor, so most requests are answered without ever travelling to your server. Behind it, LiteSpeed cache on the server answers whatever the edge does not have in well under a millisecond. You do not configure either one; both are on from the moment a site is created.
The only thing a cache can get wrong is serving yesterday's page after you changed it today. The rest of this guide is about how ServerBorn prevents that, and what to click on the rare occasion it does not.
Caching is for visitors who are not logged in. When you are signed in to WordPress you always see the live site, so you can check an edit without purging anything.
What is cached, and for how long
- WordPress pages stay at the edge for up to 24 hours, and are purged the moment the site changes (next section). wp-admin, wp-login, the REST API, previews, and anyone carrying a login, comment or WooCommerce cart cookie are never cached.
- Theme, plugin and media files (everything under
/wp-content/and/wp-includes/) stay at the edge for up to a year and in the visitor's browser for one day. They are purged together with the site, and a replaced media file is purged by itself. - Static sites (anything that is not a WordPress install) are cached for up to 4 hours. Paths under
/api/are never cached, so a contact form or booking script keeps working.
WordPress purges itself
A small ServerBorn plugin ships with every WordPress install and cannot be switched off from wp-admin. It tells the edge to drop the site's cached pages whenever something public changes:
- A post or page is published, updated, trashed or deleted.
- A comment is approved or unapproved (that post is purged).
- A theme is switched, the Customizer is saved, a menu or widget area changes.
- A plugin is activated or deactivated, or WordPress, a theme or a plugin is updated.
- Site title, tagline, permalink structure, front page or posts-per-page settings change.
- A media file is uploaded, edited or deleted (the file and its generated sizes are purged).
- You click Purge All in the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, which now reaches the edge too.
The purge runs in the background a moment after you save, so publishing feels exactly as it did before.
Edits made outside WordPress, for example a theme file changed over the terminal, are not seen by the plugin. Purge by hand after those (next section).
Purge by hand
- From the panel
Dashboard → Manage on the site's tile → the Purge cache tile. Everything cached for that site's hostnames is dropped, and the next visitor gets a fresh copy from LiteSpeed. Nothing else on your account is touched.
- From wp-admin
Signed in as an administrator, click Purge edge cache in the black admin bar at the top of any page. A green notice confirms it. This also purges the LiteSpeed cache.
Static sites and the File Manager
- Edit in the File Manager
Saving, creating, renaming, uploading, extracting or deleting a file in the panel's File Manager purges that file (and its folder, for an index page) on the spot. You never wait for the four hours to pass.
- Deployed another way?
Files that arrive by terminal, SFTP or a deploy script are not seen by the panel. Use the Purge cache tile once the upload is finished, or let the four-hour window expire.
Still seeing the old version?
- Your browser has its own cache. Hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R, or Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac) or open the page in a private window.
- Another cache plugin or an external CDN in front of the site keeps its own copies; purge there too, or remove it, since ServerBorn already provides both layers.
- A page builder may keep its own generated CSS; regenerate it from the builder's settings, then purge once more.
- Static sites changed outside the panel refresh within four hours even if you do nothing.
Visitor stats in the panel are built from your server's logs. Pages answered by the edge never reach the server, so those numbers show origin traffic, not every visitor. For complete audience figures, add a client-side analytics tool to the site.
Can I turn edge caching off?
There is no switch, because logged-in users already bypass it and every change purges it. If a page must never be cached (a members area that works without WordPress logins, for example), open a ticket and we will add a bypass rule for that path.
Does purging slow the site down?
No. The first visitor after a purge is answered by LiteSpeed on the server, which takes a fraction of a millisecond, and that answer is cached at the edge again on its way out.
Does a purge on one site affect my other sites?
No. Purges are scoped to the hostnames of that one website, even for sites on a shared ServerBorn subdomain.